100 billion check-based transactions are made in the United States each year. Many of these check transactions are still cleared by physical processing and transporting of the original printed paper check. When checks are processed for payment, the routing and account information on the front of the check is read, and images are captured of the front and back sides of the check to capture information written on the check by a payor and any endorsements on the back of the check by the payee. Check processing systems at financial institutions and consumer locations do so by passing a large number of checks through large check processing systems to enter these checks into the financial systems computers for payment. Recently, smaller and faster check processing systems, having shorter document travel distances, have been introduced for check processing at different types of places of business, thereby allowing the business to digitize the information on the check.
These various types of check processing systems, as well as other types of document processing systems, such as printing systems and scanning systems, require reliable throughput of documents. Generally, mechanisms are used that guide documents through a path of travel for scanning, printing, or other actions. These guide mechanisms include a belt-driven system having one or more drive rollers connected to a motor and arranged to drive the overall system. Additional mechanisms are generally required to ensure that documents remain within the path of travel, and pressed against the belt and/or drive rollers, so that the documents remain engaged and traveling through the system.
Existing systems use spring-biased idle rollers that are placed in positions opposed to drive rollers to ensure that documents remain within the path of travel. An example of such an idle roller configuration is shown in FIG. 1. As illustrated in that example, existing spring-biased rollers typically include a spring-biased arm that pivotally holds an idle roller against the drive roller on an opposite side of the path of travel of the documents in the system. The spring-biased arm applies a force equal to the force applied by the spring at the pivot point of the arm. The force is not generally adjustable, or controllable, despite the fact that springs used to implement these spring-biased rollers generally have different compression forces. For example, such springs can vary in applied force by 10% or more. Furthermore, existing idle rollers require a relatively large distance (seen as distance L) of track space to implement.
For these and other reasons, improvements are desirable.